Green Isn't Just for Slytherin Anymore
by corvusdraconis
Summary: The Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition Entry for Season III Round Two Theme: Hufflepuff x Hufflepuff Friendship


The Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition Entry

**Round Two Theme:** Friends Are The Family We Choose For Ourselves

Beater 1: Hufflepuff x Hufflepuff friendship

**Optional Prompts:** (phase) piece of cake (opening sentence) It had been a very long day)

**A Day in the Life of Hufflepuffs - Green Isn****'t Just for Slytherin**

It had been a very long day, and no one knew this better than the two Hufflepuffs covered in about a centimetre of garden soil, leaf litter, and countless scratches from a very enthusiastic venomous tentacula.

"Look at the bright side, Cedric," the weary looking boy said as he pulled thorns out of his ear lobe. "After today, our practical in the handling of the venomous tentacula will be a piece of cake."

Cedric frowned at his House-mate, giving him the most world-weary expression in his repertoire. "Stebbins, if I ever see another venomous tentacula again it will be too soon."

"Oh, and spending the last two hours on my belly on the floor of the greenhouse trying to catch about two hundred escaped blue-shelled garden crabs was so much more of a party," Stebbins scoffed.

"At least the garden crabs weren't trying to poison you and break your bones," Cedric said with narrowed eyes.

The two friends stared at each other and their mutual state of disrepair and burst into laughter.

"How did you get all those annoying buggers into the sack anyway, Stebbins?" Cedric asked, idling scratching his arms.

"Immobulus spell," the boy answered. "I got the idea from that screaming Gryffindor who had a tentacula on his ankle. I missed a few times though. I guess my concentration was horrible. There were crabs in places crabs don't belong."

Cedric snickered. "I learned some choice words from that one," he said with an amused grin. "I didn't even know some of those insults he was spewing."

"Me either," Stebbins said, sticking his tongue out in amusement. "At least Professor Sprout lets us curse if the tentacula homes in on us. I wish she'd let us just set them on fire when they piss us off."

"Oh, and setting the plant on fire does what? Compel them to behave?" Cedric laughed. "If anything, you'd have a flaming and angry, pissed off tentacula that wants to burn you to death while it breaks your bones and poisons you."

Stebbins sighed with resignation. "At least you get to be my teammate again for the next project," he said softly. "I'm tired of working with Derek Angler. For a Hufflepuff, he's the laziest sod on this side of the continent."

Cedric grinned. "I think someone has been drugging his pumpkin juice. He was never so lazy until this term."

"Maybe he's been up late… studying?" Stebbins said suggestively.

"Studying?" Cedric laughed. "Are you mental? He's about as apt to study… oh—" Cedric's words trailed off as he realised what his friend meant. His face flushed as his eyes widened in slow and horrifying realisation. "Nevermind. Nevermind! Ah! I'm going to need a _Scourgify_ on my brain after that!"

Stebbins wiggled his eyebrows, pausing a moment to pull a leaf out of his hair.

"You're horrible," Cedric complained. He pulled a branch out of his hair and stared at it accusingly then tossed it over his shoulder. He looked over to Stebbins and his brows furrowed. "What are you holding anyway? Is that a salamander?"

Stebbins had a weary look on his face. "It was in my hair, Cedric," he complained bitterly. "My hair is going to smell of fire salamander for the next week. You know how hard it is to wash the protective slime off if it gets on you."

Cedric wrinkled his nose. "Nasty. There must have been a hidden nest somewhere in the fire lilies in greenhouse three," he said with sympathy. "You know, Professor Spout may have some sort of potion we can use for that. You can't be the only one in the world who's ever gotten salamander slime on them."

Stebbins shook his head. "Then I'd have to explain to our Head of House why I was in greenhouse three to begin with."

"You took a shortcut because you were late, Stebbins," Cedric admonished. "That's not grounds for expulsion or a crime against being Hufflepuff. Crime against Professor Snape, maybe."

Stebbins gave him a disappointed look. "I feel like it's a crime against being Hufflepuff."

Cedric laughed. "Herein lies the irony," he chuckled. "It's because you think that, that you're such a Hufflepuff."

Stebbins gave his friend a playful shove. "I think I need a little of that Gryffindor courage they keep talking about. Maybe I would have been better apt to face the tentacula instead of just screaming curses for the first minute."

"We can't all be brazen Gryffindor, Stebbins," Cedric chuckled. "The greenhouse would be full of confrontation and no one would there to milk the moon flowers."

"I'll take milking the moon flowers any day, to be honest," Stebbins quipped.

"You and me both, mate" Cedric said with a grin. "Come on, let's go get cleaned up so we can show up for lunch without looking like we just spent the last three hours on the greenhouse floor."

"But, we did just spend the last three hours—"Stebbins protested.

"Yes, but we don't have to look like we did!" Cedric said, giving his a shove towards the Common Room.

"Just once, I'd like to show up looking like a Slytherin," Stebbins pouted.

Cedric plucked a large green leaf out of his friend's hair. "Well you got half of the colours right," he said with a grin, waving the leaf in front of his face.

The two friends burst into light laughter and scurried off to face the rest of their day.


End file.
